Students speak out against Innovation Montessori High School

Students are speaking out against Innovation Montessori High School's plans to merge its middle-school program with its high school campus, as well as its plans for a possible lottery for enrollment.

Innovation Montessori expanded when it moved its charter high school to a new, separate campus on East Silver Star Road in August 2022. 

Before the campus on Silver Star, the community was informed the new location would have a "game-changing" 800-member high school, according to the original IMHS charter draft.

IMO Executive Director Patrice Cherico said the aspirational limit of 800 high school students was the original target and serves as a cap. 

After having to pivot due to the pandemic, in July 2022, IMHS officials told Orange Observer the school would start with 170 students with a student capacity of 288 — 72 planned for each grade level. 

MIDDLE SCHOOL MERGE?
Four weeks ago, the school announced the board voted on merging the middle school program with the IMHS campus. 

IMHS Principal Jared Stewart sent a message to parents March 24 about the merger: "Following the merger (consolidation of our two charter contracts with OCPS) of our K-8 and high school charters — which was approved at February’s OCPS board meeting — at Wednesday night’s board meeting, our board voted to consolidate our middle and high school programs."

Stewart then sent a newsletter to parents saying he met with students to "collect their thoughts on how to make the transition as smooth as possible."

"While this change will certainly create challenges, I was pleased to hear students share their thoughts on how we can make the transition happen in a way that supports all students at all grade levels," Stewart wrote. "Concerns and ideas were shared, and I fielded a lot of questions. Overall, I believe the discussions were productive and gave students an opportunity to be heard."

However, staff, students and parents are now speaking up, claiming the school never asked for their input, an act they maintain contradicts the Montessori education, which is intended to be a student-led approach.

The school's charter states that: "In Montessori, students are integrally involved in their own education, so transparency, innovation and rigor come naturally from the one-on-one relationships with the student’s teacher, the small-group support of a student’s fellow students, and the active inclusion of parents into the educational culture. … First- and second-year students will be involved in the very design of their learning space, and also in the creation of an internal economic system. This co-creation, guided expertly by the faculty and advisors, allows true ownership to develop between the students and their school.”

Cherico said although the school is in support of the student voice, it also knows "adolescents don’t always have all the facts or the full perspective, which is exactly why we don’t include them in operational decisions."

"In Montessori we valorize the adolescent, giving them agency and input in many things, but not in everything," she said. "While their input is very important, we also understand, as adults, that they still have a way to go developmentally. In a nutshell, we include student voice in things like event planning, mascots, wall colors, etc., but not in operational decisions. Can you imagine yourself as a high school student being excited about having middle school students join your school, no matter how many benefits were touted by administration? Of course, not. We feel optimistic, however, that in the future, they will come to wonder how we could have ever done it any other way."

In addition to the merge, Stewart, Cherico and Cathy Tobin, principal for Innovation Montessori's K-8 programs, announced March 24 they also are conducting a second lottery for children in the seventh grade, starting in the 2024-25 school year.

After parents voiced concerns, Kia Scott, senior director of OCPS Charters, wrote: "I have spoken to one of the school's board members as well as to Ms. Cherico regarding the ability to hold a secondary lottery for students already enrolled. It is our stance that this is not allowed."

However, in a newsletter sent to parents April 24, Cherico wrote: "As discussed in our previous communications, we are working through the details with the goal of reducing/eliminating the need for a lottery. While we understand that people desire specifics, we need time to flush it out fully."

Cherico provided an updated comment on the issue  Sunday, April 30. 

"I can tell you that we are looking to strengthen our adolescent program by better utilizing our resources and staff to support quality instruction and enrichment activities for students in seventh through twelfth grades," she said. "Currently, we are in the early planning stages of how that would work, beginning in the 2024-25 school year. We don’t have a need for a lottery for this transition. Our board will be meeting Tuesday to discuss further."

STUDENTS SPEAK UP
The students are now asking for a chance to keep their high school campus and grow it as they were promised.

The students first asked Sonia Loaknauth, the Parent Teacher Organization high school liaison, to read a unified letter on their behalf at a board meeting April 11.

"At school, we are encouraged to be involved in the planning, implementing and assessing of our learning environment," the letter reads. "Yet, we’re shut out of the room when it matters."

From a survey conducted by students last week, 136 out of the 164 surveyed stated they were against the merge. Out of the 24 neutral students, a large number said they voted neutral, because "they don't care because they're leaving this school anyway."

The students also created a hand-signed petition against the merge that 125 students out of 136, with nine members absent, signed.

Additionally, the students have created an online petition called "Save Our Schools," to raise support from the community. 

"We petition you to pause the preparation for consolidating secondary 1 and 2 at Innovation Montessori High School," the petition reads. "This preparation covers the move of IMO middle school to the IMHS campus, and the concurrent expansion of primary classrooms to the main IMO building. We seek to pause further action on this agenda, pending transparent analysis, proper public notification and opportunity for public input on these changes prior to a vote, consistent with Florida Statute 286.011.

"It is our contention that the school leadership failed to follow the dictates of this Statute previously," the petition reads. "On March 22, the Innovation Montessori Ocoee Board of Directors voted to 'direct the staff to adjust enrollment numbers and hiring decisions in preparation of moving middle school students to IMHS campus in the 24-25 school year and begin the change management process.' This vote was done despite the failure to properly notify the public of prior working sessions and finance committee meetings discussing this change. The locations/Zoom meeting rooms for some of these sessions were not publicly posted. Those previous meeting minutes were not made available for public inspection prior to the vote. For that reason, that March 22 vote must be voided and the process restarted."

In a prepared statement for the board meeting to address the concern around the Sunshine Laws, Cherico said: "In looking over the information posted on the website calendar for both working sessions on Jan. 10 and March 23, these working sessions had the requisite number of board members for a quorum and no Zoom meeting was offered to the public. We do not need to have a Zoom link if we are holding a meeting in person. As a convenience, we have offered Zoom options for families. Minutes were taken. The Sunshine Law asks that minutes are taken. Should someone ask for the minutes, they would be provided."

The petition also says: "Additionally, Florida Statute 1002.33 states: 'Each charter school’s governing board must appoint a representative to facilitate parental involvement, provide access to information, assist parents and others with questions and concerns, and resolve disputes,'" the petition states "We have no such a person here at IMO. We have no SAC either. We request the appointment of this representative to bring us into compliance with Florida law. We also request the formation of an independent SAC to provide crucial, and previously lacking, parent/teacher/student recommendations to the Board of Directors."

Cherico explained the school has parent representatives, sometimes called out in the school's manuals as parent liaisons. Jennifer Aparicio serves at the main building, Hilda Going serves at primary and Kavita Ramsingh serves at IMHS.  

The petition also provides a list of concerns for the merge including high school self-determination, utilization of limited space, lack of middle/high school separation and child development. 

"The seventh through twelfth grade grouping is fully aligned with Montessori’s third plane of development which is ages 12 through 18," Cherico said. "The seventh through twelfth grade is not an uncommon configuration for smaller schools that span all grades. The amount of space and number of students is still within the capacity we anticipated; it is simply a shift in the number of students in the grade levels from seventh through twelfth grade."

Those who wish to view or sign the petition can click here. 

The school will be hosting its next board meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, at IMO, 1644 N. Lakewood Ave., Ocoee.